This light serves two purposes: (a) aids in backing down driveway and (b) security. My area has regular break-ins, so (b) is not something that I will give up on. When we moved in, it was a high-pressure sodium lamp on a light sensor. The neighbors and I both hated that lamp, so I replaced it with a directional halogen which points only at the driveway and I added a motion sensor. I've tried two, and both are equally crappy. I think the original bulb was 300 watts, and that was too bright so I replaced it with a 100 watt.
I'm trying to avoid doing any real work, but thank you for the suggestions - certainly I can try the electrical tape! The sensor came with a little template for the front to narrow the beam, but frankly I haven't seen much effect, especially for the false wind alarms. Zoneminder is an interesting idea... I don't want to run a PC full time, but a little Pi or something by the electrical box wouldn't be bad.
I agree that legitimacy is critical to the survival of a democracy. In fact, I agree with everything in your post. It's just that I feel that is a short-term dynamic... if most people don't feel that the system is fair and just, they will demand a new system. If enough people demand a new system, the state cannot function. I feel that education is critical to achieving this end.
For instance, it is not at all clear why the legal system works the way it does. Why should the state pay to defend a murderer? Why should we presume innocence? Why can't we take matters into our own hands? You need to educate people about the legal system, both so that they can understand why it is in their best interest to use it and so that they can use it to their advantage... if they don't use it (or at least know how they can use it), they are likely to only see themselves as a victim of it.
In other words, if I'm the ruling class, it is in my best interest to communicate why the systems I depend on are also beneficial to, you, the common folk. I maintain that is not possible without a strong educational foundation.
Really? A $250 (or $600 if you get the 10 inch) device for your kids to watch movies and play Angry Birds on? If I were getting a tablet for myself, I'd seriously consider an iPad, but I'm not 7 years old.
they aren't a threat to democracy, they represent democracy in action.
Individually they aren't a threat. But when such a large portion of your population demonstrates such poor critical thinking skills, what hope does democracy have?
You want a smoothly running system with no nutters?
No. I want a vibrant democracy. That means having an educated populace. The existence of so many nutters is evidence that we are not adequately educating the populace, and as a result we endlessly debate wackiness instead of anything that really matters.
I suggest a technocratic meritocracy where you treat everyone equally based on superficial characteristics like skin color, but you discriminate hardcore against people who do not meet a certain level of competency.
I think you have to go with a meritocracy when your population is not yet educated, but I'd like the active goal to always be an enlightened democracy.
That's why democracy works: the crazy people have the illusion of rights and feel they have more to lose by rebelling than by not.
That is also it's undoing. When they find out they can take what they want through the state and are too stupid to realize that is self-defeating, you get nationalized industries and such. Then when all the power-hungry people that abused people's stupidity get into power, they are loathe to give it up. So even when the ignorant masses become educated - not by history, but by their own experience - it is too late, they already have some kind of authoritarian, corrupt state.
Note that the rich people in Venezuela are pretty ignorant, too. Rather than sink their considerable fortunes into education, they armor their vehicles and fortify their property and refer to the masses with derogatory names. You see some of that in the US these days as well. To those in a privileged position in a democracy, education and social mobility is critical to keeping their position - but it is not the cheapest way in the short term.
You can make fun, but a country cannot function as a democracy unless the electorate is educated. At the very least, they have to be educated enough to learn from the histories of other societies. I'm always appalled to find out people don't know that Hitler was elected. How can you expect people to avoid the same traps that the Germans did if they don't know the signs to look out for? Most recently, this happened in Venezuela - a country rescued by cancer.
I know for sure (having seen the inside of an ET cartridge) that the ROM was a chip that was epoxied directly to the cartridge circuit board, wirebonded, and then glop-topped - all in Thailand. I don't know if other ET carts were made in other locations or with different methods, but the only thing they could have reused is the plastic cartridge housing IMHO.
I'd buy a few for under $100. At the worst, they'd make nice video players for long car/plane rides with the kids. I'm sure they are adequate for couch internet surfing. If they can do anything else at all, that's pure gravy. Hardware-wise, these aren't crap tablets - they are reasonably nice machines (spec-wise... never seen one myself).
I've even considered mounting one remotely facing back at the house to cut down on wind-triggers from trees. Sometimes, but not always, it triggers for cars going by on the street. Then I turn down the sensitivity or redirect it and it won't trigger when my wife is backing down the driveway! Argh.
The security lights come with the worst motion sensors possible. I'd gladly (well, maybe reluctantly) pay for a decent sensor if you have a recommendation. Something like a quality burglar alarm sensor, but weatherproof.
There is only one place that I know of doing that, and it is Fire Island, and it is being done in a very experimental way (watched closely by the utilities board). It is conceivable that certain areas - such as coastal or rural - could be better served by wireless than by copper. I don't have a problem with such experimentation, so long as the standards are kept up.
I Welched on my bet and it led to a Mexican standoff with another guy who was an Indian giver. In the end we settled it with a game of Russian Roulette. It was chaos, a real Polish Parliament. In the end, the gun didn't go off and we all felt like we were Gypped.
Pointing is definitely learned in humans, too - or at least it is with my kids. If you think about it, it's a pretty crappy way to indicate something unless your heads are nearly together or you are far enough apart that you can interpolate the line between the person's face and finger.
Or if it's a huge alien spacecraft and so accuracy doesn't matter much.
E-collar? Put that on your kid and see how they react (or Children's aid). The latter two suggestions are the right answer. If you have to resort to shocking your dog then you are doing something wrong.
Oops, I'd better take it off. Hold on while I take off his muzzle, remove his leash and collar, and put him back in his cage. Oh wait, like you, I just confused my dog with a person.
Even Samsung has a proprietary connector. I think that is acceptable for docking stations, though, as long as USB is also available (unlike Apple). I mean, the docking station has to be pretty integrated with the device - I can see why they would avoid a standard plug that people might accidentally jack into.
The price does seem quite high considering the competition is at half that. The Nexus 7 dock sucks - all it does is add an audio out and charge... even the old video iPods had video out on their docks!
Toshiba has the Thrive with dock. The dock takes a microSD, Mini USB, Mini-phone Audio, Power Input, and HDMI Digital Audio/Video. It can of course use a Bluetooth keyboard, so you don't really need a dock for that:) The Thrive is an Android 3.2 beast, and at least some models can be rooted.
I have a very complex opinion about this. Food is not a commodity I am willing to leave to the free market. I don't mind (too much) the swings in price and availability for most things... if gas or lumber costs a whole lot more one week - or if there are shortages - it will be a pain, but life will carry on. Eventually the free market will sort things out. If this happens with food, you starve. I'll give up a little on average price to secure a steady supply. So if the goverment drives up the price with regulation, I don't really complain.
Same with food safety... with a lot of things, I don't really mind a bit of "buyer beware". It lets an efficient market take care of bad players in a way that is much more efficient than direct goverment regulation. The downside is that a few people get bad product before the market kills the bad player. When it comes to food, that can mean death... it stands to reason that maybe efficiency is not the most important goal.
Nutrition is not quite as life-threatening... it's a slow phenomenon for the most part, with plenty of warning signs and constantly changing advice. Wouldn't you hate to have the government ban eggs in the 80s due to cholesterol? Or butter? Now eggs and butter are (at least partially) exonerated and trans-fats are evil. Oily fish... they are bad - mercury! Oily fish... they are good - Omega-3! Wrong kind of Omega-3, now you need krill oil! LOL, I can't even imagine the goverment getting involved at that level.
The sugar dust-up was a good example... in NYC I would have been forbidden from buying a gigantic soda at 7-11, but go next door to the bar and I could get an 800 calorie pina collada. That is very inconsistent from a policy perspective, and I can't blame people for eye-rolling. We do want some balance of profit motive in our food supply, or we will suffer from very poor yields and distribution.
Of course you would be able to use Dropbox and friends, but you can do that today on any of the smartphones already available.
I've yet to see a single app scale well to not only screen size, but also input method (mouse vs touch). Not that it is impossible, but app developers seem hard-pressed to cope with simple resolution and screen changes... throw in a mouse and keyboard and all bets are off.
Re: docking station. In the very old days when laptops had horrendous screens and there was nothing like USB (or even firewire) to hot-plug in accessories, yes, they were very helpful. These days, they mostly serve as a giant overpriced USB hub.
Yes, I know that the hardware isn't quite there yet but it will be within a couple of years.
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Tanked? It was a 10% drop...
This light serves two purposes: (a) aids in backing down driveway and (b) security. My area has regular break-ins, so (b) is not something that I will give up on. When we moved in, it was a high-pressure sodium lamp on a light sensor. The neighbors and I both hated that lamp, so I replaced it with a directional halogen which points only at the driveway and I added a motion sensor. I've tried two, and both are equally crappy. I think the original bulb was 300 watts, and that was too bright so I replaced it with a 100 watt.
I'm trying to avoid doing any real work, but thank you for the suggestions - certainly I can try the electrical tape! The sensor came with a little template for the front to narrow the beam, but frankly I haven't seen much effect, especially for the false wind alarms. Zoneminder is an interesting idea... I don't want to run a PC full time, but a little Pi or something by the electrical box wouldn't be bad.
I agree that legitimacy is critical to the survival of a democracy. In fact, I agree with everything in your post. It's just that I feel that is a short-term dynamic... if most people don't feel that the system is fair and just, they will demand a new system. If enough people demand a new system, the state cannot function. I feel that education is critical to achieving this end.
For instance, it is not at all clear why the legal system works the way it does. Why should the state pay to defend a murderer? Why should we presume innocence? Why can't we take matters into our own hands? You need to educate people about the legal system, both so that they can understand why it is in their best interest to use it and so that they can use it to their advantage... if they don't use it (or at least know how they can use it), they are likely to only see themselves as a victim of it.
In other words, if I'm the ruling class, it is in my best interest to communicate why the systems I depend on are also beneficial to, you, the common folk. I maintain that is not possible without a strong educational foundation.
Perhaps they got more creative than I'm thinking with the contract terms.
I'm thinking it would be as simple as licensing multiple patents, so that the consideration is the remaining patents in their portfolio.
That's the whole point of this story, though :)
Really? A $250 (or $600 if you get the 10 inch) device for your kids to watch movies and play Angry Birds on? If I were getting a tablet for myself, I'd seriously consider an iPad, but I'm not 7 years old.
they aren't a threat to democracy, they represent democracy in action.
Individually they aren't a threat. But when such a large portion of your population demonstrates such poor critical thinking skills, what hope does democracy have?
You want a smoothly running system with no nutters?
No. I want a vibrant democracy. That means having an educated populace. The existence of so many nutters is evidence that we are not adequately educating the populace, and as a result we endlessly debate wackiness instead of anything that really matters.
I suggest a technocratic meritocracy where you treat everyone equally based on superficial characteristics like skin color, but you discriminate hardcore against people who do not meet a certain level of competency.
I think you have to go with a meritocracy when your population is not yet educated, but I'd like the active goal to always be an enlightened democracy.
That's why democracy works: the crazy people have the illusion of rights and feel they have more to lose by rebelling than by not.
That is also it's undoing. When they find out they can take what they want through the state and are too stupid to realize that is self-defeating, you get nationalized industries and such. Then when all the power-hungry people that abused people's stupidity get into power, they are loathe to give it up. So even when the ignorant masses become educated - not by history, but by their own experience - it is too late, they already have some kind of authoritarian, corrupt state.
Note that the rich people in Venezuela are pretty ignorant, too. Rather than sink their considerable fortunes into education, they armor their vehicles and fortify their property and refer to the masses with derogatory names. You see some of that in the US these days as well. To those in a privileged position in a democracy, education and social mobility is critical to keeping their position - but it is not the cheapest way in the short term.
You can make fun, but a country cannot function as a democracy unless the electorate is educated. At the very least, they have to be educated enough to learn from the histories of other societies. I'm always appalled to find out people don't know that Hitler was elected. How can you expect people to avoid the same traps that the Germans did if they don't know the signs to look out for? Most recently, this happened in Venezuela - a country rescued by cancer.
Thanks, didn't know about Mantoloking, N.J. It's still a limited situation at this point.
I know for sure (having seen the inside of an ET cartridge) that the ROM was a chip that was epoxied directly to the cartridge circuit board, wirebonded, and then glop-topped - all in Thailand. I don't know if other ET carts were made in other locations or with different methods, but the only thing they could have reused is the plastic cartridge housing IMHO.
I'd buy a few for under $100. At the worst, they'd make nice video players for long car/plane rides with the kids. I'm sure they are adequate for couch internet surfing. If they can do anything else at all, that's pure gravy. Hardware-wise, these aren't crap tablets - they are reasonably nice machines (spec-wise... never seen one myself).
I've even considered mounting one remotely facing back at the house to cut down on wind-triggers from trees. Sometimes, but not always, it triggers for cars going by on the street. Then I turn down the sensitivity or redirect it and it won't trigger when my wife is backing down the driveway! Argh.
The security lights come with the worst motion sensors possible. I'd gladly (well, maybe reluctantly) pay for a decent sensor if you have a recommendation. Something like a quality burglar alarm sensor, but weatherproof.
what's wrong with just carrying a torch?
Crime. Crime and lighting are correlated (negatively...).
In my neighborhood, Comcast gives my across-the-street neighbors a better price than me because they have FIOS available and I do not.
There is only one place that I know of doing that, and it is Fire Island, and it is being done in a very experimental way (watched closely by the utilities board). It is conceivable that certain areas - such as coastal or rural - could be better served by wireless than by copper. I don't have a problem with such experimentation, so long as the standards are kept up.
Everything offends someone, somewhere. You need to strike a balance between empathy and not going out of your freaking mind. :)
I Welched on my bet and it led to a Mexican standoff with another guy who was an Indian giver. In the end we settled it with a game of Russian Roulette. It was chaos, a real Polish Parliament. In the end, the gun didn't go off and we all felt like we were Gypped.
Pointing is definitely learned in humans, too - or at least it is with my kids. If you think about it, it's a pretty crappy way to indicate something unless your heads are nearly together or you are far enough apart that you can interpolate the line between the person's face and finger.
Or if it's a huge alien spacecraft and so accuracy doesn't matter much.
E-collar? Put that on your kid and see how they react (or Children's aid). The latter two suggestions are the right answer. If you have to resort to shocking your dog then you are doing something wrong.
Oops, I'd better take it off. Hold on while I take off his muzzle, remove his leash and collar, and put him back in his cage. Oh wait, like you, I just confused my dog with a person.
Even Samsung has a proprietary connector. I think that is acceptable for docking stations, though, as long as USB is also available (unlike Apple). I mean, the docking station has to be pretty integrated with the device - I can see why they would avoid a standard plug that people might accidentally jack into.
The price does seem quite high considering the competition is at half that. The Nexus 7 dock sucks - all it does is add an audio out and charge... even the old video iPods had video out on their docks!
Toshiba has the Thrive with dock. The dock takes a microSD, Mini USB, Mini-phone Audio, Power Input, and HDMI Digital Audio/Video. It can of course use a Bluetooth keyboard, so you don't really need a dock for that :) The Thrive is an Android 3.2 beast, and at least some models can be rooted.
I have a very complex opinion about this. Food is not a commodity I am willing to leave to the free market. I don't mind (too much) the swings in price and availability for most things... if gas or lumber costs a whole lot more one week - or if there are shortages - it will be a pain, but life will carry on. Eventually the free market will sort things out. If this happens with food, you starve. I'll give up a little on average price to secure a steady supply. So if the goverment drives up the price with regulation, I don't really complain.
Same with food safety... with a lot of things, I don't really mind a bit of "buyer beware". It lets an efficient market take care of bad players in a way that is much more efficient than direct goverment regulation. The downside is that a few people get bad product before the market kills the bad player. When it comes to food, that can mean death... it stands to reason that maybe efficiency is not the most important goal.
Nutrition is not quite as life-threatening... it's a slow phenomenon for the most part, with plenty of warning signs and constantly changing advice. Wouldn't you hate to have the government ban eggs in the 80s due to cholesterol? Or butter? Now eggs and butter are (at least partially) exonerated and trans-fats are evil. Oily fish... they are bad - mercury! Oily fish... they are good - Omega-3! Wrong kind of Omega-3, now you need krill oil! LOL, I can't even imagine the goverment getting involved at that level.
The sugar dust-up was a good example... in NYC I would have been forbidden from buying a gigantic soda at 7-11, but go next door to the bar and I could get an 800 calorie pina collada. That is very inconsistent from a policy perspective, and I can't blame people for eye-rolling. We do want some balance of profit motive in our food supply, or we will suffer from very poor yields and distribution.
Yeah, range isn't the problem - it's cost. Ditto for pollution controls on those cheap Asian scooters.
Side note - I once saw a family of 4 plus a dog riding a scooter in Taiwan.
Of course you would be able to use Dropbox and friends, but you can do that today on any of the smartphones already available.
I've yet to see a single app scale well to not only screen size, but also input method (mouse vs touch). Not that it is impossible, but app developers seem hard-pressed to cope with simple resolution and screen changes... throw in a mouse and keyboard and all bets are off.
Re: docking station. In the very old days when laptops had horrendous screens and there was nothing like USB (or even firewire) to hot-plug in accessories, yes, they were very helpful. These days, they mostly serve as a giant overpriced USB hub.
Yes, I know that the hardware isn't quite there yet but it will be within a couple of years.
This device, as spec'd, is not that hardware.